The First Telephone Call Bell on the telephone in New York (calling Chicago) in 1892 The First Telephone Call March 10, 1876 What were the first words ever spoken on the telephone? They were spoken by Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, when he made the first call on March 10, 1876, to his assistant, Thomas Watson: "Mr. Watson--come here--I want to see you." What would you have said? page 1 of 4 How we stopped communicating like animals: 15 ways phones have evolved – BGR Tweet Telephones have changed dramatically since Alexander Graham Bell spoke the first words into a telephone on March 10, 1876. Overall, they’ve improved since then, but the road wasn’t always smooth. Here’s a look back at the most important advances in telephone technology and some of the worst. The original phone On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell spoke into his device and said to his assistant, “Mr.

Watson, come here, I want to see you.” In doing so, Bell launched the telephone era with the first bi-directional electronic transmission of the spoken word. At least that is how the story typically goes. While Bell received the first patent for a telephone, the origin of the telephone is complicated and inconclusive, with Elisha Gray, Antonio Meucci of Italy, and Innocenzo Manzetti each claiming to be the phone’s true inventor. Candlestick Popular from the 1890s to the 1930s, the candlestick phone was separated into two pieces. The mouth piece formed the candlestick part, and the receiver was placed by your ear during the phone call. This style died out in the ’30s when phone manufacturers started combining the mouth piece and receiver into a single unit. Thankfully. Rotary The rotary phone became popular. To dial, you would rotate the dial to the number you wanted, and then release. Based on my limited interaction with rotary dial phones, this must have been incredibly tedious. As push-button phones gained popularity in the 1960s and ’70s, the rotary dial phone thankfully began its slow death.

Push-button In 1963, AT&T introduced Touch-Tone, which allowed phones to use a keypad to dial numbers and make phone calls. Each key would transmit a certain frequency, signaling to the telephone operator which number you wanted to call. While much better than the rotary dial, these dial tones were subject to spoofing by what were called “ blue boxes .” Using a blue box, you could make free long-distance phone calls. Answering machine The answering machine transformed phone behavior, allowing callers to leave a message if no one was on the other end. Not popular until the 1960s, these phone accessories originally used cassette tapes to record messages. In the past 15 years, digital answering machines replaced the miniature cassette tapes, and in the past 10 years, we all just use our cell phones voicemail. Portable phones Portable, or cordless, phones were the phone equivalent of the TV remote. You were no longer physically attached to your phone’s base station. Beginning in the 1980s, portable phones were like a small-scale cell phone. You could talk on your phone anywhere in your house. Now that you can talk on your phone anywhere in the world, portable phones seem quaint.

But at the time, a well-placed portable phone could save you a trip across the house. Motorola DynaTAC Released in 1984, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was the first commercially available mobile phone. In 1973, Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call ever with a predecessor of this beast. At 1.75 pounds, this phone had 30 minutes of talk time and cost a not-so-modest $3,995. Nokia 5110 One of many classic Nokia candybar-style phones, the Nokia 5110 was rugged and had a long battery life. More importantly, you could play Snake on its 47 × 84 pixel screen. The 5110 was also customizable, with replaceable face plates. Caller ID There was a time when you had to remember people’s telephone numbers. And then came Caller ID. You could now decide whether that phone call was worth answering or whether you could just send them to voicemail. Now standard, Caller ID changed the way we used telephones.

Motorola StarTAC The Motorola StarTAC was the first successful flip phone, and in many ways, the first successful consumer cell phone. Introduced in 1996, Motorola eventually sold 60 million StarTACs. Weighing in at just 3.1 ounces, and combined with its innovative clamshell design, the StarTAC was a milestone in the trend toward smaller and smaller cell phones. Sanyo SCP–5300 Released in 2003, the Sanyo SCP–5300 was one of the first phones to include a camera. It was already clear that digital cameras would replace film cameras, but it wasn’t clear that a camera could fit in a phone. By today’s standards, the SCP–5300’s camera is pathetic. The SCP–5300 could take 640 × 480 pixel photos and store 10 to 15 of them. It had a built-in flash with a range of only three feet. Still, this phone broke ground, and today it is clear how central cameras are to our phones.

Palm Treo With the Treo, Palm expanded its popular PDA line to become one of the first smartphones. The Treo looked very similar to Blackberry’s phones, with a tiny keyboard at the bottom. The Treo ran Palm OS, and like many leading phones at the time, began to lose its appeal after the introduction of touchscreen smartphones. In 2009, the Treo was replaced with the Palm Pre, Palm’s failed response to the iPhone. Motorola RAZR The Motorola RAZR represented the culmination of the flip phone. Unable or unwilling to experiment with new designs, mobile phone companies continued their push for smaller and smaller phones. With the RAZR, Motorola perfected the flip phone design. At just 0.54 inches thin, the RAZR was as much a fashion device as a cell phone. Announced in 2004, Motorola would eventually sell 130 million RAZRs. However, the RAZRs popularity rapidly declined in the face of a new generation of touchscreen smartphones. BlackBerry Canadian-based Research in Motion, now BlackBerry, was by far the leading smartphone manufacturer in the 2000s.

With their advanced email capabilities, BlackBerry Messenger, and physical keyboards, BlackBerry smartphones were the ultimate business phone. When the iPhone was announced in 2007, many BlackBerry fans scoffed at its lack of a physical keyboard. Now that touchscreen smartphones have proved themselves worthy, BlackBerry has fallen rapidly, with many failed attempts at touchscreen smartphones, and is currently struggling to survive. iPhone and Android When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple brought the smartphone to the masses. With its intuitive touchscreen, intelligent sensors, and sleek design, the iPhone has been an incredible success. The iPhone quickly showed just how clunky previous smartphones and flip phones were. While initially lacking some basic features such as copy-and-paste, the iPhone has consistently improved with annual updates to both its hardware and software and runs a mobile-optimized version of OS X, the company’s desktop computing operating system. Then a year later, the Android juggernaut would begin its climb to the top. Founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Android sought to create a modern operating system that would compete with Windows Mobile, Symbian, and BlackBerry. Google bought Android in 2005, and in November 2007, unveiled the Android operating system.

The first Android phone, the HTC Dream , was launched almost a year later in October 2008. Android has adapted to its competition, developing an app-based operating system for touchscreens. Android has certainly improved since its clunky early days and is now the leading alternative to Apple’s iOS. 'Mr. Watson, Come Here' (April 1999) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin First Release of Bell Papers Goes Online Left and center, Alexander Graham Bell's notebook entry of March 10, 1876, describes his successful experiment with the telephone; right, Bell sits at the New York end of the first long-distance line to Chicago and inaugurates long-distance telephone service in 1892. By LEONARD C. BRUNO With the February release of its online version of a portion of the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, the Library of Congress continued a tradition of electronic communication that began more than a century ago with the first successful telephone message: "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you." These and other historic first transmissions and the communication revolutions they engendered are documented in the manuscript holdings of the Library of Congress.

All Americans recognize the simple but profoundly significant first messages sent by Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) in 1876 and a generation earlier by telegraph inventor Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872) — "What hath God wrought?" Now, anyone with Internet access can examine a selection of the Bell papers on the Library's American Memory Web site at . Thomas Nast cartoon of Bell with Miss Liberty, possibly symbolizing the Supreme Court decision of 1888 in Dolbear v. American Bell Telephone Co., which upheld Bell's telephone patents. With a generous grant from the AT&T Foundation (see LC Information Bulletin, March 1999), the Library has begun a project to digitize significant portions of its Bell and Morse holdings, starting with the larger of the two collections, the Bell Family Papers. The first release of Bell material comprises a selection of approximately 38,000 images, consisting of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company.

The materials also chronicle his family life, interest in the education of persons with hearing impairments, and aeronautical and other scientific research. This online presentation of the Bell Family Papers can be searched by keyword, subject, name and collection series (such as family correspondence or general correspondence). Also offered are five "Special Presentations" consisting of selected collection highlights, a timeline of Bell's life and achievements, a family tree with contemporary photographs, and essays on Bell as inventor and on the relationship between the telephone and the telegraph. Efforts were made to preserve the look of the original documents in the electronic versions, and the grayscale format used by the Library captures and displays the diversity of tones in manuscript papers as well as the varying nuances produced by handwriting in pencil or ink. Roughly half of this presentation consists of original typescript letters and documents, including correspondence. The transcripts for the correspondence are searchable. Upon completion of the Bell collection next year, similar work will begin on the digitization of the Morse Papers. Letter from Bell to Mabel Hubbard Bell, 1875.

A month before they became engaged to be married, Bell wrote Mabel Hubbard this letter, teasing her about her interest in "Woman's Rights"; brochure for Bell's School of Vocal Physiology, Boston, 1875; a model of Bell's first telephone. The major portion of the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers was donated to the Library by Bell's heirs in 1975. The papers were previously on deposit at the National Geographic Society, where they were organized and maintained in a special location called the Bell Room. Aerial Experiment Association photograph of the Silver Dart, 1909. This aircraft performed best of the four planes built by the Bell-led Aerial Experiment Association (AEA). The collection of Bell Family Papers is divided into several archival series, including Family Papers, General Correspondence, Subject File, Laboratory Notebooks, Article File and Speech File. The collection spans 1834-1970, with the bulk of the materials concentrated during the period 1855-1922. Bell with Helen Keller (seated) and Annie Sullivan, with whom he shared a longtime correspondence.

Among this huge collection (nearly 150,000 items in the Manuscript Division) is a handwritten experimental notebook containing Bell's description of events as they occurred in his Boston laboratory on March 10, 1876. His entry for that day tells of his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant Watson in the next room, Bell recorded the famous, "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you." These words would inaugurate the next great revolution in communications. Later that day, Bell wrote proudly to "Papa" of his accomplishments and announced "a great success." After describing his experiment with Watson, Bell goes on to predict, correctly, that "the day is coming when telegraph [phone] wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas — and friends will converse with each other without leaving home." The Bell Papers in the Manuscript Division are diverse in their reflection of the varied interests, talents and even preoccupations of the great man himself. Besides the considerable collection of both family and general correspondence, other parts of his papers are arranged by subject.

While the telephone naturally comprises a sizable portion of this category, there are also materials on such subjects as aviation, including the Aerial Experiment Association, which he and his wife, Mabel, formed, as well as on tetrahedral kites, hydrofoil boats, sheep breeding and of course, the deaf. This breadth of interest is also documented in the 135-volume "Home Notes" and 75 volumes of "Lab Notes" that he compiled. These handwritten journals by Bell and his assistants document more than 40 years of experimentation and research. Invitation from Theodore Vail and AT&T to Bell to participate in AT&T's formal opening of the transcontinental telephone line on Jan. 25, 1915. In many ways, Alexander Graham Bell could be considered an heir of Morse, having worked first with the telegraph, seeking to improve it and go beyond its marvels. Indeed, Bell spent a considerable amount of time trying to perfect the "harmonic telegraph," which he hoped would send multiple messages at different pitches over the same wire. It was this research that led him eventually to consider the unheard-of notion that human speech itself — rather than only dots and dashes of a code — could be transmitted electrically.

Once Bell and his talented assistant, Thomas A. Watson, made the accidental discovery that only a continuous current (rather than Morse's pulses or interrupted current) could transmit varying sound waves, it was only a matter of time until he devised a functional telephone. Bell came from a family that was personally and professionally involved with all aspects of sound, speech and hearing. Both his father and grandfather were teachers of speech and elocution, and his wife as well as his mother were deaf. As an expert on speech and sound as professor of "vocal physiology" at Boston University, Bell came to realize that just as the air vibrates with the speaking voice, so too would a continuous current of electricity vibrate with the tones of the human voice. Bell's early phone system employed an electromagnet connecting two identical membranes, one of which would mimic the sound vibrations (voice) sent by the other when spoken into. Like the Bell Papers, the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection of Photographs in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division centers on both the private and professional life of Bell and would serve both the historian and the biographer.

Besides images of the Bell clan, friends such as Helen Keller and the families linked by marriage — the Hubbards, Grosvenors and Fairchilds — this large collection of photographs documents Bell's aeronautical research as well as his work on hydrofoils and sheep breeding. Altogether, the Bell papers and photographs comprise a major collection in the history of American science and technology. Left, Bell, ca. 1910; center, page from Bell's 1876 notebook with design sketches for the telephone; right, letter from Bell to his son Alexander Melville Bell and wife Eliza The Library's collection of Samuel F.B. Morse Papers is also housed in the Manuscript Division and contains more than 10,000 items. Given to the Library of Congress by his son, Edward Lind Morse, and his granddaughter, Leila Livingston Morse, between 1916 and 1944, the Morse collection has had other items added through purchase and gift between 1922 and 1995.

The Morse Papers span the years 1793-1944 and include personal and professional correspondence, diaries and notebooks, scrapbooks, maps, handwritten religious tracts and, of course, information on the Morse code, his universally accepted alphabet code of dots and dashes used to send and record telegraphic messages. By far the most riveting as well as historically significant item among this material is the original paper tape of the first telegraphic message, which contains not only the raised dots and dashes but Morse's own signed and dated note in which he explains the accomplishments of that historic day. Morse's early telegraph system produced a paper copy whose raised dots and dashes were later read by an operator. No less interesting however is the correspondence contained in the Morse Papers. Seven days after his great success, Morse wrote to his brother, Sidney, in a circumspect and almost humble tone concerning what he thought were the responsibilities that went along with success. Twice in this letter he quotes the famed message, sent on May 24, 1844, "What hath God wrought?" and uses it to invoke his own deep religious feelings.

Later, he still is feeling the flush of success when he tells Sidney of a congressional opponent who later confessed, "It is an astonishing invention." Left, portrait of telegraph inventor Samuel F.B. Morse, ca. 1910; center, posed reenactment of the sending of the first telegram with Annie Ellsworth, Morse (center) and two friends, taken between 1840 and 1850; right, Morse's granddaughter Leila Livingston Morse prepares the original telegraph for a ceremony commemorating its centennial in 1944. Morse also writes with remarkable foresight in October of the same year, when he cautions his assistant, Alfred Vail, about the potential misuse of this new medium. Morse warns Vail to be scrupulous in reporting election results, saying "As there is great interest taken, by the citizens generally of both political parties, in the results of the various elections occurring at this season, you will be especially careful not to give a partisan character to any information you may transmit." He warns Vail above all never to transmit any rumors. This shows that Morse early on had already gained considerable insight about the political aspects and potential pitfalls of rapid communication.

Bell later in life. Born in Charlestown, Mass., in 1791, the son of a minister, Morse graduated from Yale in 1810 and went to England to study art and perfect his talent for painting. Upon returning home, he found he was unable to earn a living as an artist. Nonetheless, he remained in the art worlds of New York and Europe for well over a decade, and it was not until 1832 that he found what was to be the focal point of his life. Electrical experimentation was all the rage at this time, and Morse was not exempt. With all the passion he had previously devoted to painting, he pursued the idea of communicating over distance by means of electricity. With technical assistance given by Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the newly formed Smithsonian Institution, Morse eventually constructed a telegraph that could send messages over wires through a system of pulses or interruptions of current. His "Morse code," however, was a true inspiration, and the system of dots and dashes he devised made his system both simple and efficient. With the financial backing of a reluctant Congress, Morse sent his first telegraph message over lines connecting Washington and Baltimore.

His now-famous message was suggested by Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a good friend, who had selected the quotation from the Bible (Numbers 23:23). Electricity had conquered distance for the first time, and the nation was literally abuzz. Even Morse was shocked at the degree and extent of enthusiasm he encountered. With this great success, telegraph poles would soon follow the lines of the railroad, and together they would open the West. By 1850, every state east of the Mississippi but one (Florida) was connected by telegraph, and in 1861 a telegraph line spanned the continent. In 1866, the transatlantic cable was laid successfully and the world was truly linked for the first time. These collections detailing the work of two of the nation's greatest inventors provide a fascinating and instructive view of their technical achievements and personal lives. Using a recently developed communications medium, the Internet, the Library is able to make available, in electronic form, much original material documenting the historic communications breakthroughs of these two great Americans. Mr. Bruno is the manuscript historian for science in the Manuscript Division. 'Mr.

Watson, Come Here' (March 1999) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin First Release of Bell Papers Goes Online By LEONARD C. BRUNO With the February release of its online version of a portion of the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, the Library of Congress continued a tradition of electronic communication that began more than a century ago with the first successful telephone message: "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you." These and other historic first transmissions and the communication revolutions they engendered are documented in the manuscript holdings of the Library of Congress. All Americans recognize the simple but profoundly significant first messages sent by Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) in 1876 and a generation earlier by telegraph inventor Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872) — "What hath God wrought?" Now, anyone with Internet access can examine a selection of the Bell papers on the Library's American Memory Web site at . Advertisement for the Vitascope motion picture projector, marketed by the Edison Manufacturing Co. The device was invented by Thomas Armat and C. Francis Jenkins.

With a generous grant from the AT&T Foundation (see LC Information Bulletin, March 1999), the Library has begun a project to digitize significant portions of its Bell and Morse holdings, starting with the larger of the two collections, the Bell Family Papers. The first release of Bell material comprises a selection of approximately 38,000 images, consisting of correspondence, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles and photographs documenting Bell's invention of the telephone and his involvement in the first telephone company. The materials also chronicle his family life, interest in the education of persons with hearing impairments, and aeronautical and other scientific research. This online presentation of the Bell Family Papers can be searched by keyword, subject, name and collection series (such as family correspondence or general correspondence). Also offered are five "Special Presentations" consisting of selected collection highlights, a timeline of Bell's life and achievements, a family tree with contemporary photographs, and essays on Bell as inventor and on the relationship between the telephone and the telegraph.

Efforts were made to preserve the look of the original documents in the electronic versions, and the grayscale format used by the Library captures and displays the diversity of tones in manuscript papers as well as the varying nuances produced by handwriting in pencil or ink. Roughly half of this presentation consists of original typescript letters and documents, including correspondence. The transcripts for the correspondence are searchable. Upon completion of the Bell collection next year, similar work will begin on the digitization of the Morse Papers. The Black Maria, Edison's first motion picture studio. The major portion of the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers was donated to the Library by Bell's heirs in 1975. The papers were previously on deposit at the National Geographic Society, where they were organized and maintained in a special location called the Bell Room. The collection of Bell Family Papers is divided into several archival series, including Family Papers, General Correspondence, Subject File, Laboratory Notebooks, Article File and Speech File. The collection spans 1834-1970, with the bulk of the materials concentrated during the period 1855-1922.

Among this huge collection (nearly 150,000 items in the Manuscript Division) is a handwritten experimental notebook containing Bell's description of events as they occurred in his Boston laboratory on March 10, 1876. His entry for that day tells of his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant Watson in the next room, Bell recorded the famous, "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you." These words would inaugurate the next great revolution in communications. Later that day, Bell wrote proudly to "Papa" of his accomplishments and announced "a great success." After describing his experiment with Watson, Bell goes on to predict, correctly, that "the day is coming when telegraph [phone] wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas — and friends will converse with each other without leaving home." Edison's Kinetoscope The Bell Papers in the Manuscript Division are diverse in their reflection of the varied interests, talents and even preoccupations of the great man himself. Besides the considerable collection of both family and general correspondence, other parts of his papers are arranged by subject.

While the telephone naturally comprises a sizable portion of this category, there are also materials on such subjects as aviation, including the Aerial Experiment Association, which he and his wife, Mabel, formed, as well as on tetrahedral kites, hydrofoil boats, sheep breeding and of course, the deaf. This breadth of interest is also documented in the 135-volume "Home Notes" and 75 volumes of "Lab Notes" that he compiled. These handwritten journals by Bell and his assistants document more than 40 years of experimentation and research. In many ways, Alexander Graham Bell could be considered an heir of Morse, having worked first with the telegraph, seeking to improve it and go beyond its marvels. Indeed, Bell spent a considerable amount of time trying to perfect the "harmonic telegraph," which he hoped would send multiple messages at different pitches over the same wire. It was this research that led him eventually to consider the unheard-of notion that human speech itself — rather than only dots and dashes of a code — could be transmitted electrically. Once Bell and his talented assistant, Thomas A.

Watson, made the accidental discovery that only a continuous current (rather than Morse's pulses or interrupted current) could transmit varying sound waves, it was only a matter of time until he devised a functional telephone. Bell came from a family that was personally and professionally involved with all aspects of sound, speech and hearing. Both his father and grandfather were teachers of speech and elocution, and his wife as well as his mother were deaf. As an expert on speech and sound as professor of "vocal physiology" at Boston University, Bell came to realize that just as the air vibrates with the speaking voice, so too would a continuous current of electricity vibrate with the tones of the human voice. Bell's early phone system employed an electromagnet connecting two identical membranes, one of which would mimic the sound vibrations (voice) sent by the other when spoken into. The viewer would look through the lens at the top of the machine to watch a film. Film was threaded on rollers as a continuous ribbon. Like the Bell Papers, the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection of Photographs in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division centers on both the private and professional life of Bell and would serve both the historian and the biographer.

Besides images of the Bell clan, friends such as Helen Keller and the families linked by marriage — the Hubbards, Grosvenors and Fairchilds — this large collection of photographs documents Bell's aeronautical research as well as his work on hydrofoils and sheep breeding. Altogether, the Bell papers and photographs comprise a major collection in the history of American science and technology. The Library's collection of Samuel F.B. Morse Papers is also housed in the Manuscript Division and contains more than 10,000 items. Given to the Library of Congress by his son, Edward Lind Morse, and his granddaughter, Leila Livingston Morse, between 1916 and 1944, the Morse collection has had other items added through purchase and gift between 1922 and 1995. The Morse Papers span the years 1793-1944 and include personal and professional correspondence, diaries and notebooks, scrapbooks, maps, handwritten religious tracts and, of course, information on the Morse code, his universally accepted alphabet code of dots and dashes used to send and record telegraphic messages.

By far the most riveting as well as historically significant item among this material is the original paper tape of the first telegraphic message, which contains not only the raised dots and dashes but Morse's own signed and dated note in which he explains the accomplishments of that historic day. Morse's early telegraph system produced a paper copy whose raised dots and dashes were later read by an operator. No less interesting however is the correspondence contained in the Morse Papers. Seven days after his great success, Morse wrote to his brother, Sidney, in a circumspect and almost humble tone concerning what he thought were the responsibilities that went along with success. Twice in this letter he quotes the famed message, sent on May 24, 1844, "What hath God wrought?" and uses it to invoke his own deep religious feelings. Later, he still is feeling the flush of success when he tells Sidney of a congressional opponent who later confessed, "It is an astonishing invention." Morse also writes with remarkable foresight in October of the same year, when he cautions his assistant, Alfred Vail, about the potential misuse of this new medium.

Morse warns Vail to be scrupulous in reporting election results, saying "As there is great interest taken, by the citizens generally of both political parties, in the results of the various elections occurring at this season, you will be especially careful not to give a partisan character to any information you may transmit." He warns Vail above all never to transmit any rumors. This shows that Morse early on had already gained considerable insight about the political aspects and potential pitfalls of rapid communication. Born in Charlestown, Mass., in 1791, the son of a minister, Morse graduated from Yale in 1810 and went to England to study art and perfect his talent for painting. Upon returning home, he found he was unable to earn a living as an artist. Nonetheless, he remained in the art worlds of New York and Europe for well over a decade, and it was not until 1832 that he found what was to be the focal point of his life. Electrical experimentation was all the rage at this time, and Morse was not exempt. With all the passion he had previously devoted to painting, he pursued the idea of communicating over distance by means of electricity.

With technical assistance given by Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the newly formed Smithsonian Institution, Morse eventually constructed a telegraph that could send messages over wires through a system of pulses or interruptions of current. His "Morse code," however, was a true inspiration, and the system of dots and dashes he devised made his system both simple and efficient. Left, close-up view of Edison's horizontal feed Kinetograph. A strip of film is inside the aperture gate in the center; right, paper print rolls and fragments deposited for copyright at the Library of Congress. With the financial backing of a reluctant Congress, Morse sent his first telegraph message over lines connecting Washington and Baltimore. His now-famous message was suggested by Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a good friend, who had selected the quotation from the Bible (Numbers 23:23). Electricity had conquered distance for the first time, and the nation was literally abuzz. Even Morse was shocked at the degree and extent of enthusiasm he encountered. With this great success, telegraph poles would soon follow the lines of the railroad, and together they would open the West.

By 1850, every state east of the Mississippi but one (Florida) was connected by telegraph, and in 1861 a telegraph line spanned the continent. In 1866, the transatlantic cable was laid successfully and the world was truly linked for the first time. These collections detailing the work of two of the nation's greatest inventors provide a fascinating and instructive view of their technical achievements and personal lives. Using a recently developed communications medium, the Internet, the Library is able to make available, in electronic form, much original material documenting the historic communications breakthroughs of these two great Americans. Mr. Bruno is the manuscript historian for science in the Manuscript Division. First Messages on Twitter, IM, Telegraph and More First Messages on Twitter, IM, Telegraph and More News This spring, we chuckled when Stephen Colbert asked Twitter cofounder Biz Stone if, given that the first message sent over the telegraph was "What hath God wrought?," the first Twitter message was "What hath God twat?" Which got us to wondering: what exactly was the first message sent out on various modes of communication?

Answers below: TELEGRAPH: 'What hath God wrought?' America's first telegraph message was transmitted by Samuel F.B. Morse from the Supreme Court room in the Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore on May 24, 1844. TELEPHONE: 'Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you.' The first telephone call was made by Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, to his assistant Thomas Watson on March 10, 1876. Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week E-MAIL: 'QWERTYUIOP' The first e-mail message was sent through ARPANET (precursor to the Internet) by Ray Tomlinson of BBN Technologies in late 1971, between two computers that were literally side by side but were connected only through ARPANET. The exact text has been forgotten, but it is reported to be something like this.

The first spam e-mail message was sent via ARPANET on May 3, 1978, to 400 users by Gary Thuerk on behalf of the now long-defunct computer manufacturer DEC, advertising a new line of minicomputers. AOL INSTANT MESSAGING: 'Don't be scared ... it is me. Love you and miss you' The first documented AOL instant message (sent through the AOL client) was sent by future AOL vice chairman Ted Leonsis to his wife on Jan. 6, 1993. Her response: "Wow ... this is so cool!" SMS (TEXT MESSAGING): 'Merry Christmas' Neil Papworth, an engineer at Airwide Solutions, sent the world's first text message from a computer to a cell phone. The message was sent to Richard Jarvis, who was at a Christmas party near Vodafone headquarters in Newbury, England, in December 1992.

The first commercial text message was sent from Los Angeles by Brennan Hayden, at the time an engineer for the Irish wireless company Aldiscon, in June 1993: "burp." SKYPE: 'Tere, kas sa kuuled mind?' The first full sentence spoken over Skype was uttered in Estonian by an unknown member of the original development team in April 2003. Its English translation is "Hello, can you hear me?" TWITTER: 'just setting up my twttr' The first tweet was by Jack Dorsey, creator, chairman, and cofounder of Twitter, at 12:50 p.m. PT on March 21, 2006. History of the Telephone: Service Lines and Switchboards This model of Bell's first telephone (right) is a duplicate of the instrument through which speech sounds were first transmitted electrically (1875). Alexander Graham Bell Updated September 08, 2016. In the 1870s, two inventors, Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell, both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other.

Bell patented his telephone first. Gray and Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won. Evolution of the Telegraph into the Telephone The telegraph and telephone are both wire-based electrical systems, and Alexander Graham Bell's success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph. When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years. continue reading below our video Profile of Alexander Graham Bell Although a highly successful system, the telegraph, with its dot-and-dash Morse code, was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell's extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. Although the idea of a multiple telegraph had been in existence for some time, Bell offered his own musical or harmonic approach as a possible practical solution. His "harmonic telegraph" was based on the principle that several notes could be sent simultaneously along the same wire if the notes or signals differed in pitch.

Talk with Electricity By October 1874, Bell's research had progressed to the extent that he could inform his future father-in-law, Boston attorney Gardiner Greene Hubbard, about the possibility of a multiple telegraph. Hubbard, who resented the absolute control then exerted by the Western Union Telegraph Company, instantly saw the potential for breaking such a monopoly and gave Bell the financial backing he needed. Bell proceeded with his work on the multiple telegraph, but he did not tell Hubbard that he and Thomas Watson, a young electrician whose services he had enlisted, were also exploring an idea that had occurred to him that summer - that of developing a device that would transmit speech electrically. While Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson worked on the harmonic telegraph at the insistent urging of Hubbard and other backers, Bell nonetheless met in March 1875 with Joseph Henry , the respected director of the Smithsonian Institution, who listened to Bell's ideas for a telephone and offered encouraging words. Spurred on by Henry's positive opinion, Bell and Watson continued their work. By June 1875 the goal of creating a device that would transmit speech electrically was about to be realized.

They had proven that different tones would vary the strength of an electric current in a wire. To achieve success, they, therefore, needed only to build a working transmitter with a membrane capable of varying electronic currents and a receiver that would reproduce these variations in audible frequencies. First Sounds - Twang On June 2, 1875, Bell while experimenting with his technique called "harmonic telegraph" discovered he could hear sound over a wire. The sound was that of a twanging clock spring. Bell's greatest success was achieved on March 10, 1876, which marked not only the birth of the telephone but the death of the multiple telegraph as well. The communications potential contained in his demonstration of being able to "talk with electricity" far outweighed anything that simply increasing the capability of a dot-and-dash system could imply. First Voice - Mr. Watson ... Bell's notebook entry of March 10, 1876, describes his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, "Mr.

Watson -- come here -- I want to see you." Alexander Graham Bell - Brief Biography Born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell was the son and grandson of authorities in elocution and the correction of speech. Educated to pursue a career in the same specialty, his knowledge of the nature of sound led him not only to teach the deaf, but also to invent the telephone. More on the Life of Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell - Biography Other Inventions Bell's unceasing scientific curiosity led to the invention of the photophone , to significant commercial improvements in Thomas Edison's phonograph, and to development of his own flying machine just six years after the Wright Brothers launched their plane at Kitty Hawk. As President James Garfield lay dying of an assassin's bullet in 1881, Bell hurriedly invented a metal detector in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the fatal slug. General Knowledge Riddle: What Do The Following Have In Common?

- BhaviniOnline.com BhaviniOnline.com Jokes, Puzzles, Riddles, Short Stories, Videos, WhatsApp Forwards and more      General Knowledge Riddle: What Do The Following Have In Common? posted on How good is your general knowledge? Let’s put it to test with this general knowledge riddle. What do the following sentences have in common? 1. “Mr. Watson – come here – I want you to see you.” 2. QWERTYUIOP 3. “What hath God wrought?” Let’s see how well you know some historical events. (That’s a hint by the way.)You are a genius if you get the answer without a Google search. 🙂 Share it with your friends on Facebook and WhatsApp to find out how many more geniuses are there in the group. Answer: They are all the first messages sent over a line. 1. “Mr. Watson – come here – I want you to see you.” First intelligible words spoken over the telephone (10 March 1876) by Alexander Graham Bell 2.

QWERTYUIOP The first email sent by Ray Tomlinson in the first email program. 3. “What hath God wrought?” Baltimore-Washington telegraph line commenced with the transmission of Morse’s first message, “What hath God wrought!”, a phrase from the Bible’s Book of Numbers. loading... Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone - Mar 07, 1876 - HISTORY.com This Day in History: 03/07/1876 - Alexander Graham Bell Patents the Telephone Captain James Cook discovered the Northwest coast of the Americas on this day. He discovered what is now the coast of Oregon, and was the first European to do so. German troops violated the Treaty of Versailles on this day in 1936. Broadway musicals were put on pause for four days during the musician walkout. Also, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, or what he called the electric speech machine. Lead Story Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone Share this: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone Author Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention–the telephone.

The Scottish-born Bell worked in London with his father, Melville Bell, who developed Visible Speech, a written system used to teach speaking to the deaf. In the 1870s, the Bells moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where the younger Bell found work as a teacher at the Pemberton Avenue School for the Deaf. He later married one of his students, Mabel Hubbard. While in Boston, Bell became very interested in the possibility of transmitting speech over wires. Samuel F.B. Morse’s invention of the telegraph in 1843 had made nearly instantaneous communication possible between two distant points. The drawback of the telegraph, however, was that it still required hand-delivery of messages between telegraph stations and recipients, and only one message could be transmitted at a time. Bell wanted to improve on this by creating a “harmonic telegraph,” a device that combined aspects of the telegraph and record player to allow individuals to speak to each other from a distance. With the help of Thomas A. Watson, a Boston machine shop employee, Bell developed a prototype.

In this first telephone, sound waves caused an electric current to vary in intensity and frequency, causing a thin, soft iron plate–called the diaphragm–to vibrate. These vibrations were transferred magnetically to another wire connected to a diaphragm in another, distant instrument. When that diaphragm vibrated, the original sound would be replicated in the ear of the receiving instrument. Three days after filing the patent, the telephone carried its first intelligible message–the famous “Mr. Watson, come here, I need you”–from Bell to his assistant. Bell’s patent filing beat a similar claim by Elisha Gray by only two hours. Not wanting to be shut out of the communications market, Western Union Telegraph Company employed Gray and fellow inventor Thomas A. Edison to develop their own telephone technology. Bell sued, and the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld Bell’s patent rights. In the years to come, the Bell Company withstood repeated legal challenges to emerge as the massive American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) and form the foundation of the modern telecommunications industry. Related Videos

Question: "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you" was the first message sent by what medium on March 10, 1876?
Answer: Telephone